It is known that the intervertebral discs may be subject to compression, herniation, or arthritic intervertebral degeneration.
To manage the patients, there are techniques that require a surgical intervention.
A first technique involves replacement of the damaged disc with an intervertebral disc prosthesis. Such a replacement procedure is difficult for the surgeon to perform and poses a risk of loosening under the effect of the considerable shearing forces that arise in particular when the prosthesis is in the position of maximum flexion.
A second technique involves performing intervertebral arthrodesis, an operation by which the two vertebrae adjacent to the damaged disc can be fused. This blocks the degeneration of the disc, on account of the suppression of any mobility between the two vertebrae concerned.
It is an improvement of this technique that forms the subject matter of the present disclosure.
It is known that such a technique involves the use of a device for stabilizing the two vertebrae, which device comprises screws that are intended to be screwed into the vertebrae and are rigidly connected to each other by a rigid linking element. It is thereby possible to avoid excessive mechanical stresses being applied to the intervertebral disc.
This technique has its disadvantages, however, requiring in particular the introduction of screws into the vertebrae, which procedure is sometimes impossible if the vertebrae are in a poor state and/or are not wide enough in the area of the fixation.
Anchoring devices are known (FR 2 913 330) which are formed by the assembly of two anchoring components which each have a pedicular nail and are connected to each other by a rigid link.
However, although such a system ensures good stability in the degraded bone, it has the disadvantage of being complicated to assemble, and the pedicular nails may moreover be at inclinations that are incompatible on account of the configuration of the vertebra.